IN Christ Alone My Hope Is Found!

I have just maneuvered through a season in life where I was filled with feelings of hopelessness. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to pull myself out of it, how much people tried to encourage me, or how much I meditated on the Word; I couldn’t shake the feelings of hopelessness. Nothing seemed to be going the way I thought it should and I was frustrated beyond belief. I thought if I voiced my feelings someone would understand and help me through, but the more I spoke about it, the more intense the feelings of hopelessness grew.

Early one morning I went out on my porch before the sun rose and I cried out to God and asked Him to lift this heavy burden of hopelessness because the weight of it was too much to bear. As I sat there in the stillness of the morning air the words to one of my favorite worship songs came to mind. It is the song, “In Christ Alone” by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. I began to sing the first and last verses:

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand


As I finished singing I sat there in silence as I reflected on the words of the song. I realized I had been striving in many areas, trying in my own strength to make things happen. In my striving, my mind had become consumed with thoughts of hopelessness and despair because there were some things I had no power to change. The Holy Spirit reminded me that only Christ had the power to change my circumstance and only Christ had the power to change me, but I had to be willing to allow that change to flow through me. I had to look to Him to be my source of light, strength, and peace because He is the only one who can quiet my fears and only IN Him all my strivings cease!

I was reminded of Ephesians 1:18 in the Amplified Bible where Paul says, “By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),” All at once I felt the perfect presence of Christ sitting with me and saying to me like He said to the storm in Mark 4:39, “Peace, be still.” At first I started to respond and say, “But you don’t understand. I can’t be still! The storms in my life are raging and I feel that at any moment I will be consumed by the waves of defeat. I have to move to get out of this storm because I am not strong enough to endure the torrential downpour of adversity!”

All at once I realized that I was arguing with God and putting limits on a limitless God! I was reminded of Jeremiah’s words in Jeremiah 32:17 where he said, “‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.” I was also reminded of the angel’s words to Mary in Luke 1:37 when she asked how it could be that she could give birth when she was still a virgin. He said, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”

At that moment I stopped arguing and I welcomed His presence and His peace into my heart. My heart began to be flooded with the light of Christ and I felt His peace surrounding me. I made the decision to let go of my limited understanding of His call on my life and the way I thought it should play out, and I decided to put my hope and trust in the One who placed the call on my life in the first place. I know this will be a daily faith walk because the storms are still raging around me, but the assurance I have is that I am not alone and greater is He who is in me than the storms of life that surround me.

Maybe you too are in a season where the torrential storms of adversity are raining down on you and maybe you can identify with feelings of hopelessness. I want to encourage you to take time during the day to sit in silence and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. The power of Christ is at work IN you but you have to do as I did and give Him permission to move through you so His living water can cleanse your thoughts of hopelessness and despair. He is faithful and as you allow Him to operate in you; you will feel Him working in you to give you a living hope in the midst of your hopeless situation. And as He works in you; you will feel His peace envelop you and your striving will cease. May you be strengthened and encouraged today in the living hope you have IN Jesus Christ and may you come to know and understand the hope to which He has called you and the glorious inheritance you have IN Him.

Prayer: In You alone my hope is found and I will put my trust IN You. I believe by faith that as I release my heart to You in all areas You will flood it with Your light and remind me of the call You have placed on my life. I praise You for the glorious inheritance I have IN You and I believe by faith that my inheritance will manifest in my life as I put my trust and hope IN You alone! Amen